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The “getting it done in an unconventional way” method.

The “it’s not cheating to do it the easy way” method.

The “fuck what you’re supposed to do” method.

The “get stuff done while you wait” method.

The “you don’t have to do everything at once” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be permanent to be helpful” method.

The “break the task into smaller steps” method.

The “treat yourself like a pet” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be all or nothing” method.

The “put on a persona” method.

The “act like you’re filming a tutorial” method.

The “you don’t have to do it perfectly” method.

The “wait for a trigger” method.

The “do it for your future self” method.

The “might as well” method.

The “when self discipline doesn’t cut it” method.

The “taking care of yourself to take care of your pet” method.

The “make it easy” method.

The “junebugging” method.

The “just show up” method.

The “accept when you need help” method.

The “make it into a game” method.

The “everything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method.

The “trick yourself” method.

The “break it into even smaller steps” method.

The “let go of should” method.

The “your body is an animal you have to take care of” method.

The “fork theory” method.

✦ADHD is not a personality quirk

- some things that tag along with ADHD are:

        ~sensory processing disorder

        ~executive dysfunction

        ~poor fine motor skills

        ~sensory overloads (that lead to meltdowns)

        ~sensory seeking (self stimming)

        ~hyperfixations

        ~moderate to severe memory problems

        ~Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria- is an extreme emotional sensitivity and emotional pain triggered by the perception that one is being rejected, teased, or criticized. The emotional response is complete with suicidal ideation and people suffering from RSD often get misdiagnosed with serious personality disorders. RSD is only seen in people with ADHD and the emotional sensitivity/reaction is much more severe than that of a neurotypical person.

✦Some other “fun” ADHD things! 

          ~inability to regulate emotions

          ~no concept of time

          ~noticeable public stimming (resulting in stares from neurotypicals) 

          ~no impulse control

          ~insomnia

          ~listen but cannot absorb what is being said 

          ~no volume control 

          ~increased inability to focus when emotional

          ~difficulty stopping a task and transitioning to the next 

          ~social anxiety

          ~higher levels on generalized anxiety

          ~extremely forgetful 

          ~”all or nothing” mentality  

@ neurotypicals- some things to be aware of: 

- you cannot hyperfixate. only people who are neurodivergent can hyperfixate. please don’t use that word when describing your latest obsession :-)

- please don’t stare at neurodivergent people who are stimming in public

- be respectful of those who actually need fidget toys so they can subtly stim in public 

- if we forget something you tell us it is not because we don’t care, we just have a million other thoughts racing through our mind and no way to filter through them. 

I don’t know if I can express how mentally damaging and emotionally exhausting and, honestly, sometimes life ruining hyperfixation can be sometimes when people think it’s like a “cute, quirky, obsession.” It’s so much more than that.

Hyperfixation is not “oh this thing is so cool and fun, I bought some merch for it and now I want to tell everyone about it.” It’s:

“This is the only thing I am physically capable of talking about, everything I talk about relates back to this thing, this is the only thing I can think about, I stay up until 3 AM even though I know I need to wake up at 6 AM for work tomorrow because my brain is thinking about this thing and won’t quiet down enough to sleep. I’m so busy looking for more content on this thing that I can’t sleep. When I do finally fall asleep my dreams are filled with this thing. This thing is the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about at night.”

“Everything I see and hear around me in every day life - people, songs, movies, objects - reminds me of this thing. I’m panicking because I have a paper due in 4 hours that I can’t finish because all my brain processing power is taken up by thinking about this thing and no matter what I do I can’t get my brain to switch from this thing to the paper topic long enough to write this paper. Music and white noise is too much to handle on top of it, quiet makes it worse, if I try to think about literally anything else my brain shuts down until I pick the thing back up again.”

“I’m going to cry because everyone is tired of me talking about this thing and I can feel their irritation but my entire life has been taken over by this thing, I live and breathe this thing, this thing is the only thing I care about even if that means I haven’t done my homework in 3 days, I haven’t done the laundry in a week and oh shit, I’m out of clean underwear, I ran out of clean dishes yesterday, I haven’t eaten in 14 hours — all because I’m spending time thinking about/engaging with this thing.”

And then one day you wake up and suddenly you just… don’t care anymore. You try to engage with the thing like you did before but now your brain is rejecting it. Your brain shuts down if you try to think about this thing. You now feel absolutely nothing in the face of this thing. This thing cannot hold your attention for more than 3 seconds. Two days later it’s like this thing never even existed.

But… you have found a new thing.